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Designing, Developing, and Managing Engaging Websites
C
onsistency in your message is critical on the web. Using your website to communicate your brand, your culture, and your value proposition must be consistent and engaging.
My objective is to work with you from beginning to success and render your requirements into applause.
As guidelines, your website must:
- reflect your company's values, market offering and differentiation
- engage the customer to reduce bounce rate (web channel surfing)
- create an action so visitors do something (e.g. send an email, register, buy, post, etc...)
Types of Websites
- Billboard
- Portal
- eCommerce
- Community
- The Fifth Type
The success of your web presence depends on a clearly defined
purpose. Site functionality is developed from your action goals.
Then we use your values and your target market to develop a look and
feel. To help understand these goals, consider the types of websites
out there.
In general, there are five types of sites:
1. A Billboard website is a container of information about
your company, its products and/or services. It is an electronic
brochure. It doesn't require participation and is one way
communication. If this is your type of site be sure to update it
regularly, or risk finding it at he bottom of the search engine pile.
2. A Portal website engage visitors with updates and new
content. Thes sites like blogs often aggregate content from other
sites and make it fit the look of the portal. Portal sites encourage
visitors to register and contribute (via forums, comments, polls,
etc...). These sites must be "sticky" to succeed - meaning the members
keep coming back. Successful portals become the default home page
when a user opens their browser (i.e. the first site that is
displayed). My default site is Google because I do a ton of research.
3. eCommerce websites are places to look for products and
services then buy. Good eCommerce sites make it easy to buy and have
product references throughout the site.
4. A Community website is meant to engage. Little content
is created by the site owners/managers. Most content comes from the
participants or registered users. FaceBook, MySpace, YouTube - these
are examples.
The fifth type? It is out there - waiting for you to create the next big site. You'll need help. Thats where I come in. Contact me and we'll plan, design and build it together.
Website Development and Management Services
These services are ordered to show the steps during a typical site development engagement.
Web Service
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Description
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Requirements Analysis
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It all begins by answering these questions
1. What is your organization's mission?
2. What are your values & principles?
3. What is the purpose of your website?
4. What do you want your website to do?
5. When do you want your site live?
From the answers a plan begins.
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Layout and Design
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Do you have a list of sites you like? What is your competition doing? What existing marketing literature do you have?
Creating an engaging site starts with the look and feel. From your company's culture and your internet goals, a look can be created.
When engaged, I put together a demo site with multiple layouts. You select one, or we try out others until you are satisfied.
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Graphics Redesign,
Custom Graphics, Flash, Video, Podcasting
An engaging feature to add, where appropriate, is a pop up photo light-box effect. I shows more image detail, related text, or a form.
click here for an example )
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Develop & create new
graphics
Select and develop
consistent accent graphics. For example, this site uses common stick figures with consisent colors as accents.
If you plan on selling advertising banners, a good banner management tool is selected.
Optimize existing
graphics
- resize images (do not let browsers resize)
- create pop-up light-box versions of images
- create image maps if needed
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Content Rendering & Site Conversion
What are your streaming media needs (i.e. Video, Flash, Podcasting)?
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Consistent typography
- Font consistency
- Style consistency
- Stylized text consistency (tables, boxes, insets)
Converting content form and old site to the new
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SEO
Search Engine Optimization
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SEO is not a one-off task - it is a regular activity.
- Defining competitive, long tail key words
- Consistent meta tag management
- Link Back Strategy (other sites linking to yours)
- Regularly changing or creating new content
- Creating Search Engine Friendly URLs
- Registering your site in select directories
- Creating/revising content for key words density
- Blog on other sites to get link backs
Site Statistics via Google Analytics
- Integrating Google Analytics into site
- Defining site goals and funnels
- Analyzing / Reporting Google Analytics output
- Modifying content & layout to improve results
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Cross Browser Compatibility Testing
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Your site is tested with the top three browsers
- Microsoft Internet Explorer (55%)
- FireFox (41%)
- Opera (2%)
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Site Back Up (optional hot site redirect)
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On a weekly or monthly basis, your site is backed up and archived in three different geographic locations.
Optionally, your site backup can be restored on an alternate server 1,600 miles from the primary data center. An automatic redirect can be placed on your domain in the event of a catostrapic failure. If an outage occurs, a DNS change is automatically propagated and the alternate site becomes the live site ensuring continual up time.
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Fees:
My hourly rate varies depending on the type of work. The rates range from the cost of a carpenter ($20/hour), a plumber ($35/hour) to the cost of an architect ($75/hour). Fortunately no building permits are needed.
Your costs are fixed on a project basis (once the design is fixed). If I take longer and go over the time estimate, you pay nothing more. You will receive a weekly update on progress and milestones. This is done by sending you a personal newsletter. We'll use these newsletters to design your newsletter for the site.
Effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an ongoing task. It requires monthly or weekly effort. This work can be completed at a lower monthly contract rate than on a per hour basis.
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